Saturday, January 2, 2010

George Clooney works his way rather effortlessly through this little morality tale of a man who makes a living traveling all over the country doing what the weak bosses cannot do- fire people. He is a man who finds his home in the constancy of a hotel chain- to the point that his own apartment looks like a room that has just been checked out of. He has travel down to an art- a comfortable art where he is greeted and treated as a VIP- due to his amazing accumulation of miles. He has an even life- one of work and travel with the occasional hook up. And he likes it. There is no conflict. When his comfort is challenged by a young hire who want to do the firing via teleconferences rather than travel, he wants to prove to her that there is more than a script involved in firing unsuspecting employees. When he enters into a relationhship with an aggressive fellow traveler, he almost slides into another reality. If you think hard enough about the movie, you can find some irony in most of it. The acting is superb. And I really liked this film- I'd overanalyze it though because it is actually a story with 3 subplots that involve other kinds of firing. It is like a very good short story- it gets the audience to FEEL for the people in it. There is no real high drama, and the plot twists aren't much of a surprise, but the cast does so much with it that you don't notice those things. GO see it. (Just don't pay attention to Clooney's new teeth and botox- I don't mind the botox, but those new choppers keep him from looking like George Clooney. I will grudgingly admit he looks better. But hey- I guess it's his job to look good, so go with the new).